Hjalmarsson, Camilla

Abstract [en]

Austens works concern themselves almost exclusively with the social surface of a narrow world. A society, in which behaviour is codified, language restricted to impersonal formulas and the expression of feeling muted is the province of her novels, the novels of manners. This study attempts to analyse and discuss four important themes in two of Jane Austens novels. The themes concern the depiction of social attiitudes, friendship, employment and marriage. All of Jane Austens novels centre on the pogress of growing from girlhood to womanhood. The major differences between the novels under discussion are primarily the number of stages the heroines have to go through to reach maturity.